Looking back, seeing forward - ESCalate final seminar at UCET

We are holding a session on the second day of the UCET conference (4th Nov) at 10:55am. A number of colleagues who have worked closely with us over the past 11 years will be speaking about their work with us and the legacy to come. Proposed speakers and themes are outlined here:

HEA resources focus group - would you like to be involved?

The HEA Resource Centre Working Group are setting up some focus groups to help them unpick what the new Resource Centre should be, what sort of resources it should include, and how it should look and feel. The HEA therefore needs to identify some potential participants who will represent the needs of the Education community. The Social Science focus group, of which Education is part, is likely to take place in York at the end of November.

Ideally they are looking for people at different stages in their academic career, in a variety of roles, at a variety of different institutions, in a variety of geographical locations. Each group will consist of 8 -10 people from across the Social Science disciplines. The focus group outputs will feed into a design workshop early next year.

If you or any of your colleagues are interested in putting their names forward, could you e-mail kathy.wright@heacademy.ac.uk by Oct 28th with your name and role within your institution?’﻿

News from the HEA

Up to 20 students’ unions across the UK are being sought to take part in these awards, which will give students the chance to show how much they appreciate staff commitment to teaching quality. The scheme follows a highly successful two-year pilot programme of the awards in Scotland.

The HEA has launched a travel fund to help UK staff and students attend conferences, network meetings and special interest groups that are being run in the UK. The fund is open to individuals or teams wishing to attend events which related to the HEA’s seven priority themes of: assessment; education for sustainable development; employability; internationalisation; flexible learning; retention and success; reward and recognition of teaching.

The call for bids in the HEA’s second phase of teaching development grants opened this month. It is aimed at higher education institution departments, with a total of £300,000 being made available up to a maximum of £30,000 per project.

This report provides national results from the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) for 2011. The trend of increasing positivity seen in PRES results each year continues with the 2011 results, with 86% of respondents stating that the overall experience of their research programme met or exceeded their expectations, compared with 81% in 2007, 83% in 2008 and 84% in 2009.

This report presents the results of the third national administration of PTES, which has run every year since 2009. These trend data can provide valuable insights into the nature of the taught postgraduate student experience over time. In 2011 over 38,700 students from 80 UK higher education institutions (HEIs), took part, a substantial increase from 2010, when there were responses from over 32,600 students from 76 HEIs.

The HEA will shortly be issuing a call for the 2012 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey. PTES has proved to be a valuable and user-friendly way of collecting information about what taught postgraduate students think about their experiences. HEIs wishing to register their interest should visit the HEA website.

Event sponsorship now available from the HEA

The Higher Education Academy are offering two new strands of funding for Workshops and Seminars. You need to be from a subscribing HEI to apply.

Thematic call for proposals: Through the thematic series, institutions are invited to disseminate findings from research or evaluation work, or share evidence-informed policy and/or practice in one of two thematic areas: Assessment and Feedback or Retention and Success.﻿ Up to £500 is offered for each event.

Deadline for proposals - November 3rd.

Discipline call for proposals: Through the discipline series, institutions are invited to host and deliver a workshop or seminar on teaching and learning in a discipline context. Workshops and seminars will be held throughout the 2011-12 academic year. Up to ﻿£500 is offered for each event

There is no deadline for proposals as they can be applied for throughout the year.

Two colleagues Paul Wilson (University College Plymouth, St Mark and St John﻿) and Allison Bolster (University of Bristol) have written this timely publication for us. It outlines some theoretical and practical issues around multiple placements in schools. The authors evidences their views from work they have completed within their own institutions, and they discuss the issues that need to be considered by institutions and individuals thinking of adopting this strategy.

Just to remind everyone that due to a cessation of funding from the HEA ESCalate will be closing at midnight on December 31st. Grant holders have been contacted with new deadlines for reports and invoices but other colleagues might like to think about any other activity that will be affected by this.

See below for organisations who will continue to support Education colleagues.

Other education subject associations' events of possible interest

What and how do teachers learn from experience? A Research Symposium supported by the Society for Educational Studies and the Oxford Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research﻿ 23-14 Oct, Oxford. For further details, click here.

Professor Becky Francis will discuss 'Gender and Social Justice in Education: Current Issues and Future Agendas' 4.30-6pm﻿﻿﻿ on 27 October 2011 at Lancaster University. For more details,﻿ click here.

Academy of Social Sciences debate the future of higher education on Monday 21st November at 2pm - 3.30pm at the offices of the British Academy of Management, Euston Road, London﻿. For more details, click here.

The 2011 SRHE Annual Research Conference on 'Positive Futures for higher education; connections, communities and criticality'﻿ will be held on 7, 8 and 9 December 2011. For more details, ﻿click here.

The 2012 annual BESA conference will take place at Hull University on Thursday 28th/Friday 29th June 2012. The conference organisers are now calling for papers and abstracts or draft papers, deadline next March. For more details, ﻿click here.